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Explorers Foundation ••• home page

Glyphs ••• list of fragments of Freeorder

Investments ••• a table of all investments

freeorder ••• the concept & vision

Threads records indications of conversations and events important to Explorers Foundation, because somehow pertinent to the emergence of freeorder. If something in one of these interests you (beyond following the links provided), please contact us. Everything here has something to do with something our own visible region of freeorder network(s) is actually involved in.

Many of the things found in Threads will be found, in greater detail, collected in Vortices.

Vortices: Threads contain references to vortices, pages that record resources, discussions, and investments, relevant to Explorers Foundation areas of focus and investment.

Vortices, are born, die, evolve, merge, split, flow, and evolve.

A list of current Explorers Foundation Vortices •••

References to vortices: “v” + the name, e.g. vGuardian

freeorder welds together free & order to ensure that never again will the two concepts be thought to be in opposition to one another.

freeorder expresses the idea that orders arising from freedom work best for all of us who wish to use our full powers of imagination, reason, and action in pursuit of happiness and in service to people and things we love.

More extensive description of freeorder •••

* ∮forge is an abbreviation of “integrating freeorder generator,” an institutional form essential to the full emergence of freeorder, in various ways, among all of the world’s cultures, resulting in a “concert of civilizations,” a phrase used by James C. Bennett ••• author of The Anglosphere Challenge.

Definitions of freeorder:

• What’s good for explorers within each of us and among us.

• A balance among designed and spontaneous orders that serves quest, venture, and error correction.

The conjecture implied by the second definition is that Hayek’s insights into kinds of order are useful in thought and productive in action and will remain so as the world of freeorder evolves.

The word quest indicates an aesthetics guided pattern of explorations. The romantic implications of the word are fundamental. The emergence of freeorder, within each of us and among us depends on fierce balances of romantic idealism and ruthless rationality.

How Explorers Foundation can be simultaneously liberal and conservative.

We are liberal (in the original and future meaning) in that we are for the freedom of every individual to imagine, think, act, and collaborate; and we are conservative to the extent that what we seek to conserve is exactly the same freedom. Such conservation of liberty requires saying “no” to some visible good things, and thereby protecting many many essential but invisible good things.

Freeorder Bridge 0.95 ••• version 0.95

Freeorder Bridge: from here to there ••• version 0.95 — a five page article (pdf) about how we will cross a seemingly impossibly wide strait. The metaphor of a suspension bridge is used to begin discussion of a centuries old chain of insights and actions that have enabled and will continue to enable the emergence of freeorder.

Weavers of freeorder

Hayek, on order, and how freeorder connects his “kinds of order” with quest

🔹 The word order is fundamental:

F. A. Hayek, in Volume I, Chapter Two, "Cosmos and Taxis", of Law, Legislation and Liberty (University of Chicago, 1973), suggests this definition of the word "order":

"By 'order' we shall throughout describe a state of affairs in which a multiplicity of elements of various kinds are so related to each other that we may learn from our acquaintance with some spatial or temporal part of the whole to form correct expectations concerning the rest, or at least expectations which have a good chance of proving correct."

“Those who believe that what you cannot quantify does not exist also believe that what you can, does.” —Aaron Haspel

Found on the first page of The Tyranny of Metrics ••• Jerry Z. Muller

“How the obsession with quantifying human performance threatens our schools, medical care, businesses, and government” —publisher

“Serenity” ••• Peter Saint-Andre offers some ideas on how to live well

Anatomy Insights with Jon Zahourek: Classic video clips on timeless topics in anatomy •••

Anatomy in Clay® Learning System •••

Systemic, Proteolytic Enzymes: “Just about everything that makes us sick is either a protein or is protected by a protein and is therefore subject to control by proteolytic enzymes. In this report, we’re going to take a look at exactly what systemic, proteolytic enzymes are, what they do, how they do it, and what the ideal proteolytic formula looks like.” ••• Jon Barron •••

Individuals: Resilience or Vulnerability?

“The most important change in the way individuals are viewed in the 21st century is the shift from a presumption of resilience towards defining individuals by their vulnerability. … Once vulnerability is seen to trump human resilience, people’s ability to deal with adversity can end up being compromised.” -Frank Furedi, “A disaster without precedent: Covid-19 is a huge blow to humanity, but it need not break the human spirit” ••• in Spiked-Online ••• ~thanks to Victor Hill for recommending Furedi’s essay in his article ‘The fallout from the “China Virus”’ •••

Habeas Corpus - “the supreme protection invented by the English people for ordinary individuals against the state”

“You might however consider whether you should not unfold as a background the great privilege of habeas corpus and trial by jury, which are the supreme protection invented by the English people for ordinary individuals against the state. The power of the Executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist.” —Winston Churchill, In a telegram (November 21, 1942) by Churchill from Cairo, Egypt to Home Secretary Herbert Morrison; cited in In the Highest Degree Odious (1992), Simpson, Clarendon Press, p. 391 ISBN 0198257759 ~thanks to libquotes.com ••• and to Larry Arnn •••

“Coronavirus puts absurdity of inflexible government regulations in sharp relief

Thirty-five states have Certificate of Need laws that limit important health care services” ••• editorial on by Anastasia Boden and Angela Erickson on Fox Business

Two deficiencies of freeorder: 1) excess design restricting emergence of spontaneous order; 2) excess spontaneous order not restricted by the imposition of design. The above describes instances of the first form of defect.

Family fights crony “Competitor’s Veto” law •••

Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government ••• “This seminal treatise in the history of ideas demonstrates what has come to be known as the Higgs thesis: that government grows in periods of crisis, for example, war and depression. He demonstrates this with a detailed look at twentieth century economic history. Higgs's thesis is so compelling that it has become the dominant paradigm for understanding the so-called ratchet effect: government grows during crisis and then retrenches afterwards, but not to the same level as before. This book is absolutely essential for anyone who seeks to understand the dynamics of government growth and the loss of liberty.” ~Mises Institute •••

Contents:

Part I. Framework

▪ 1. The Sources of Big Government: A Critical Survey of Hypotheses

▪ 2. How Much Has the Government Grown? Conventional Measures and an Alternative View

▪ 3. On Ideology as an Analytical Concept in the Study of Political Economy

▪ 4. Crisis, Bigger Government, and Ideological Change: Toward an Understanding of the Ratchet

Part II. History

▪ 5. Crisis Under the Old Regime, 1893-1896

▪ 6. The Progressive Era: A Bridge to Modern Times

▪ 7. The Political Economy of War, 1916-1918

▪ 8. The Great Depression: "An Emergency More Serious than War"

▪ 9. The Political Economy of War, 1940-1945

▪ 10. Crisis and Leviathan: From World War II to the 1980s

▪ 11. Retrospect and Prospect

“Crisis and Leviathan is a blockbuster of a book, one of the most important of the last decade. It is that rare and wondrous combination: scholarly and hard-hitting, lucidly written and libertarian as well.” —Murray N. Rothbard, late S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

“Insightful, compelling, and clear, Higgs breaks new ground in explicating the most important socio-political trend of our time—the growth of American government.” —The Freeman

“Policymakers must approach this pandemic head on, with calm and humility. Calm, because a virus is not the only contagion we face. Panic is its own contagion, one that impairs judgment. Humility, because even when policymakers do not act out of panic, their best laid plans often go awry. … policymakers must first discard laws that are preventing health professionals from responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.” ••• CATO

 The Fatal Conceit, by F. A. Hayek

knowing too much can be more dangerous than knowing too little

Editorial Foreword

Preface

Introduction: Was Socialism a Mistake?

1. Between Instinct and Reason

2. The Origins of Liberty, Property and Justice

3. The Evolution of the Market: Trade and Civilisation

4. The Revolt of Instinct and Reason

5. The Fatal Conceit

6. The Mysterious World of Trade and Money

7. Our Poisoned Language

8. The Extended Order and Population Growth

9. Religion and the Guardians of Tradition

Appendices

Editor's Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Name Index

Subject Index

December 21, 2007; edited/updated November 30, 2017

“That a majority of the electorate is this deeply alienated from the establishment can’t be dismissed as bigotry and ignorance. There are solid and serious grounds for doubting the competence and wisdom of America’s self-proclaimed expert class.” ••• Walter Russell Mead, in WSJ, 25 Mar 20

“There is great public-health damage from both the virus and from mass unemployment and recession.” ••• Wall Street Journal, 25 March 2020

“Liberty in the Midst of a Pandemic” ••• Ari Armstrong, in Complete Colorado ••• a news site worth a visit for many reasons

“Francisco’s Money Speech” ••• Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Ozone may defeat the Coronavirus (COVID-19) ••• Dr. Robert Jay Rowen

“Conclusion: The world already has a most inexpensive, safe, and likely effective remedy for deadly viral diseases, which exploits their redox vulnerability at critical membrane cysteine sites. Ozone therapy could be easily deployed worldwide. This epidemic could provide a means to study ozone therapy very ethically by treating seriously ill patients, who might otherwise expire, with ozone therapy under the auspices of the institution’s review board. Governments should take notice.”

A longer paper by Rowen on ozone and viruses •••

Dr. Rowen’s message on Facebook, 3 Feb 2020

I take Dr. Rowen seriously, ever since, from a distance, I watched him, in ten days, take a good friend from a “terminal” bone eating disease to full recovery.

A novel approach to defeating viruses, a Venus Flytrap: “bind-encapsulates-destroy” ••• this is not a recommendation to buy stock; it’s a pointer to an idea that may have merit.

Does the harm from the coronavirus panic exceed that of the virus itself? ‘“Flattening The Curve” Just Isn’t Worth It, Dr Fauci’ ••• Anton Wahlman

Time Magazine (2014 cover story): “We Were Wrong About Saturated Fats” •••

This happens over and over - a good reason to get government out of health care, while replacing the good things it does with equal or better solutions emergent from people free to innovate and offer.

Viruses and Economics - Anton Wahlman writes ••• in Seeking Alpha:

Investors now have to ponder the precedent of shutting down the economy of every future virus too. How often? This is the biggest risk of all time.

Is the society-wide cost of the shutdown greater than building more hospitals, without shutting down everything else? I argue that it is not -- by perhaps a factor of 1,000.

What this will do to private property and the sanctity of contracts, is what is making me the most pessimistic about the future of the equity market.

The only way to prevent this for the future, is for political and business leaders to reopen for business and promise to never shut down again for virus reasons.

“Lying in Politics” ••• by Hanna Arendt, published in 1971 by The New York Review of Books •••

Requisite Hierarchy, a concept introduced to me by Bill Casey, of Executive Leadership Group •••, who draws on the work of Elliott Jaques. See “In Praise of Hierarchy” ••• (Harvard Business Review).

Law of Requisite Hierarchy •••, from Cybernetic Laws of Social Progress, p. 115.

Opinions based on beliefs that we find not credible may nonetheless be correct.

Suspicion of authority expressed by people whose beliefs we cannot share may nonetheless be justified.

Attempts to shut down such people in the name of reason must be opposed.

‘Attempts to Increase Bitcoin's Supply Would End Up With Another "Bitcoin”’ •••

Anyone thinking about the U.S. Constitution may find this interesting.

Herland Forest ••• Natural Burial Cemetery - managed by members of the Windward Community ••• As a cooperative community of over 30 years, Windward is dedicated to modeling the practical human-scale technologies and integrated village-scale systems needed to support sustainable rural communities on marginal land.

Stewardship call us to create a lasting home, while connecting with the wider community of life. We recognize that we can only steward what we truly love, and that we can only truly love something that we understand–something that we live with, spend time with and keenly observe, something that inspires us and that we stand beside to protect.

Herland Forest is a community-based, not-for-profit natural burial cemetery and stewardship forest in south-central Washington about 80 miles east of Portland, OR. We’re dedicated to helping people go home by another way.

Herland Forest is managed by  members of the Windward Community. A 501(c)(3) transitional center and sustainability education and research center.

Explorers Foundation investment in the work of Walt Patrick and the Windward Community •••

Note, in email, from Edward Stringham, President, American Institute for Economic Research •••

“Something like a pandemic virus can reveal problems that had previously been unseen. 

“The good news is that this problem will pass in time, but a sound strategy right now, in addition to individual caution, is to free the markets to make the world economy less vulnerable to shocks such as this one. 

“What we absolutely should not do is make matters worse through massive coercive measures that panic investors, spread public hysteria, and prohibit people from making the best possible choices for their lives. The old truth pertains in normal times as well as in crisis times: people in their own lives are better managers than government-employed authoritarians who bear no liability for the cost of their decisions.”

Supply chains, dependence, viruses, exodus from China, article ••• by Madison Gesiotto, in The Hill ••• 11 March 2020

“Just as manufacturers had once moved their factories to China to take advantage of cheap labor, weak regulations, and lower tariffs on exports to developed economies, these companies are now fleeing China for other countries that offer similar business advantages without all of the political baggage from Beijing. The coronavirus outbreak around the world could dramatically accelerate the manufacturing exodus from China, as companies begin to recognize the perils of giving the authoritarian country so much power over their supply chains.”

Bill Bonner, 02 Mar 2020: “What is the appropriate action for a central bank in the event of a pandemic? That is not a question that Powell, Bullard, Trump et al. are going to ask. Because there is only one thing they can do… and it’s completely inappropriate. That’s the charm of the feds… There is no calamity – natural or manmade – that they can’t make worse. All they have to work with is fake money. They either add it. Or take it away. Guess which one they are planning to do now?” —Bill Bonner’s Diary, free subscription through Bonner & Partners •••

Jim Mellon, on a variety to topics •••

“Legendary physicist Freeman Dyson: A great one has passed” ••• by CFACT Ed, February 28th, 2020 — a man to remember.

Jon Barron: “More than Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the New Coronavirus ••• Baseline of Health Foundation” — Jon Barron’s writings on health are excellent.

Rural-Urban Balance: Effect of internet by satellite, SpaceX and Starlink •••

SpaceX/Starlink is leveraging its experience in building rockets and spacecraft to deploy the world's most advanced broadband internet system.

In America 3.0 ••• Bennett & Lotus suggest that this kind of service will completely change the market for real estate all over the world as rural locations become as well served by internet as urban areas: “In this emerging economy, there will be no need for crowding masses of people together …” -pg. 205

Woodson Center ••• 1776 Project, slavery in the United States

“Slavery was a dystopic form of socialism where slaves faced 100% taxation and received compensation only “according to their needs,” as determined by slaveholders. The end of slavery eliminated these horrible disincentives and inefficiencies, and can be viewed as the largest, most successful targeted tax cut in U.S. history. America succeeded despite slavery, not because of it, and only began to hit its stride when slaves were free at last.” ••• ~WSJ, 27Feb20

Our Founding Principles:

• Low-income individuals and neighborhood-based organizations should play a central role in the design and implementation of programs to address the problems of their communities.

• An effective approach to societal problems must be driven by the same principles that function in the market economy, recognizing the importance of competition, entrepreneurship, cost efficiency, and an expectation of return on investment.

• Value-generating and faith-based initiatives are uniquely qualified to address problems of poverty that are related to behavior and life choices.

Erik Voorhees: Within Five Years There Will Be a Major Financial Meltdown and Crypto Will Be Ready •••

“Bitcoin: It may fail but we now know how to do it” ••• Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Jan 2018, on Medium •••

Michael Strong meets creators early in their lives, Ethan (age 5)

“In addition to my three year video series with Alana, now age seven, today I had my first call with Ethan, age five. After he acknowledges that it is weird talking on video like this, we quickly get into his building projects. I ask him what he thinks about, and he thinks about building things. At around 2:58 he acknowledges that he is a "creator." It turns out that he is already drawing pictures of what he wants to build before he builds it. He acknowledges that he was not doing it this way back when he was three. I dig into his creative process a bit and am amazed at how sophisticated he is already. Here I'm getting to know him and his world, how comfortable he is talking about ideas, how aware he is of his own creative process, and feeling out how comfortable he'll be going deeper. Much of this is trust building and a diagnosis of how abstractly he is thinking. I'm observing where he is and how far we can go with respect to exploring his intellectual and creative world in various ways going forward. He is way ahead of most children his age as a self-empowered, self-aware, creator.” ••• ~video, YouTube

Academy of Thought and Industry ••• - “Our program is especially well-suited to young people who are ready to take responsibility for their own learning, and are purpose-driven, entrepreneurial, unconventional, or intellectually curious.” —Michael Strong, founder

Explorers Foundation investment in the work of Michael Strong •••

Columbia University Seminar on Innovation ••• co-chaired by Ronald Gross, author: Socrates' Way, Peak Learning, The Great School Debate; and other books. ~thanks to Ron Gross

“The focus of this Seminar is on the process of change  -- in individuals, organizations, and society.  Its scope includes personal change throughout the lifespan, and organizational change via major institutions including mass media,  business enterprises, libraries, voluntary organizations, cyber-culture, and educational systems, as well as processes ranging from socialization and enculturation, to civic discourse, meaningful conversation, and independent scholarship.”

Explorers Foundation investment in the work of Ron Gross •••

How Major Change Happens

“The normal process of change through political and bureaucratic systems is very gradual and primarily serves the immediate interests of those in the system itself. Real change happens through punctuated equilibria. Certain crucial moments in history arise in which small groups of effective people with proper understandings can entirely recast systems, working usually through ad-hoc entities thrown up outside the regular system but able to steer the direction of events.” ~Jim Bennett

Bill Sardi, contra almost everything we hear about the current virus outbreak.

“Viral Alarm: When Fury Overcomes Fear” An Essay ••• by Xu Zhangrun, Translated and Annotated by Geremie R. Barmé — written by a brave man, and published in Beijing in Chinese in early February 2020 and published in English 10 Feb 2020 by ChinaFile •••

‘First and foremost, the political life of the nation is in a state of collapse and the ethical core of the system has been rendered hollow. The ultimate concern of China’s polity today and that of its highest leader is to preserve at all costs the privileged position of the Communist Party and to maintain ruthlessly its hold on power. “The Broad Masses of People” are nothing more than a taxable unit, a value-bearing cipher in a metrics-based system of social management geared towards stability maintenance. “The People” is a rubric that describes the price everyone has to pay to prop up the existing system. We are funding the countless locusts—large and small—whose continued existence depends on a totalitarian system.’

“Miss Virginia” ••• [trailer] — vouchers

Individual heroism in opposition to established power and indifference. A great movie.

Vouchers for every child’s education would be a step forward, followed by gradual replacement of tax derived funds with voluntarily sourced funds.

Review ••• [The Spool] . Latest stories •••

Moving Picture Institute •••

“The Moving Picture Institute is a modern-media production house and talent incubator that creates and supports high-impact film and video content designed to entertain, inspire, and educate audiences with captivating stories about human freedom.”

“Journalism is suffering from a crisis of its own making” - Sharyl Attkisson, 2015 ••• [YouTube]

Detailed insight into how the relationship between government and media works, and how it has changed for the worse. Attkisson has been a victim of this change. However, her exclusion from main media has created an opportunity for her that she is using well.

Founding Startup Societies: A Step By Step Guide ••• by Mark Frazier and Joseph McKinney

“Based on the authors’ experience in over 50 countries and over 120 projects, it is the most comprehensive guide to building areas of policy reform. 

“The Guidebook covers 20 steps to create a Startup Society, from designing small pilots to running a full-scale city. It also introduces five unique best practices for making Startup Societies: creating consortiums to deliver immediate value, launching competitions to find local partners, leading with gifts for grassroots residents, lifting barriers to investment, and sharing upsides with local communities.”

Mosaic Warfare ••• Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies •••

“Mosaic uses highly resilient networks of redundant nodes and multiple kill paths to minimize the critical system value of U.S. nodes that an enemy could target. This ensures U.S. forces are effective in contested environments. At the same time, disaggregated functionality would allow a mosaic force to be highly adaptable across the spectrum of military operations. Mosaic combines the attributes of highly capable, high-end systems with the volume and agility afforded by numerous smaller force elements that can be rearranged into many different configurations or presentations. When composed together, these smaller elements complete operational observe–orient–decide–act cycles (“OODA loops”) and kill chains. Like LEGO® blocks that nearly universally fit together, mosaic forces can be composed together in a way to create packages that can effectively target an adversary’s system with just-enough overmatch to succeed.” —Restoring America’s Military Competitiveness: Mosaic Warfare, By Lt Gen David Deptula, USAF (Ret.) and Heather Penney with Maj Gen Lawrence Stutzriem, USAF (Ret.) and Mark Gunzinger

Worth reading to develop thinking about freeorder: utilizing a proliferation of networked OODA loops (see Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War •••)

Toward relief from abusive decisions of administrative agencies — from an email:

••• Petition Pending Before Arizona Supreme Court Would Fix Inadvertent Error in JRAD Rule 3 — R-20-0008 Petition to Amend Rule 3

 

Washington, DC (February 4, 2019) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a Petition with the Arizona Supreme Court to amend Rule 3 of the Rules of Procedure for Judicial Review of Administrative Decisions (JRAD Rule 3) because it ignores the current statute (A.R.S. 12-911) passed almost 50 years ago. The purpose of A.R.S. 12-911, which only requires a showing of “good cause,” is to make it easier to maintain the status quo while a neutral, independent judge evaluates the disputed administrative decision. But in 2017, the Court inadvertently amended its own court rules and made it harder to obtain such stays. The Supreme Court failed to catch the error in time, and the flawed rule stands today in the way of the legislature’s carefully crafted objective of protecting the public from the administrative proceedings of state agencies. 

 

Without this check on agency decisions, it is harder to control the Administrative State. Administrative adjudication in Arizona is rife with self-serving decisions issued by agencies acting as prosecutors, relief, judges, and enforcers. JRAD Rule 3 makes it extremely difficult and cost-prohibitive for JRAD appellants to obtain any effective relief through the courts against a state agency’s abuses. NCLA’s Petition asks the Court to correct this error and bring its court rules into compliance with the statute.

 

The Court has opened the comment period on NCLA’s Petition. Comments should be submitted on or before May 1, 2020, at the following online site: https://www.azcourts.gov/Rules-Forum/aft/1079

Mosaic Warfare ••• (Epoch Times video, with text): a good example of freeorder thinking

Cultural shift: To be may become more important than to seem …

“… to work in Tesla’s artificial intelligence department does not require a specific degree.

‘A PhD is definitely not required … I don’t care if you even graduated high school’ Tesla boss Elon Musk said on Twitter on Feb. 2.” — WSJ

Brexit — “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” ••• Winston S. Churchill, November 10, 1942. Jim Bennett has drawn our attention to this quotation on the day Britain left the European Union, and then Jim added: “The work of demolition has been completed.  The construction of CANZUK can now commence.”

CANZUK Union •••

“Homeless community at East Austin camp creates committee 'for the homeless, run by the homeless’” ••• ~thanks to Barbara Johnson ••• whose email subject was “The endless wonder of human beings” 🐬

Another creation of the informals: See Hernando de Soto, The Other Path •••

Mutual Aid ••• (the entire book, without charge) by Peter Kropotkin ••• (a short biography by Jeff Riggenbach) — the concept of mutual aid is fundamental to the vision of freeorder. This is a fascinating book (1902) by a great geographer, anthropologist, and historian.

The Impeachment Handbook ••• with John Yoo ••• & Richard Epstein ••• Friday, January 17, 2020, interview by Peter Robinson, Hoover Institution [see next entry below]

“The impeachment proceedings against President Trump has now reached the Senate and to help our viewers navigate the legal and political issues surrounding it, Peter Robinson sits down with the Hoover Institution’s Visiting Fellow John Yoo and Senior Fellow Richard Epstein, two of the foremost legal scholars in the country.”

Uncommon Knowledge ••• — interviews by Peter Robinson ••• Hoover Institution ••• ~thanks to Jameson Campaigne •••

Jameson Campaigne writes: “Some marvelous, high-level presentations here. Worth checking maybe once a month. Both audio-only and video choices for each. Great for upper-level college students. The links below with "0" after them are audio-only, but video also available. Peter Thiel talk at the Mont Pelerin meeting not listed, yet. For long drives/flights, dumping audios onto a Bluetoothed laptop or phone an option. The links below merely those I might wish to view, some time:

https://www.hoover.org/research/how-be-conservative [Roger Scruton]

https://www.hoover.org/research/wealth-poverty-and-politics-0 [Thomas Sowell]

Stopping here at page 19. There are 73 pages in all.

“We now have evidence that close contact existed between the First Emperor’s China and the West before the formal opening of the Silk Road …” •••

Peter Robinson interviews ••• Daniel Hannan about his book, The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America, published in 2010. This interview is of lasting value.

Daniel Hannan at CATO Institute, September 2010 •••

A Prosecutor's Job, U.S. Supreme Court, 1935 - not to win cases but to assure that justice shall be done

"Long ago, in a case called Berger [U.S. Supreme Court: Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78 (1935)], the Supreme Court set the standard for the conduct of US attorneys:

The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all, and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor--indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one." —Found in Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice, by Sidney Powell

Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78 (1935) •••

Sidney Powell’s website •••

Sidney Powell ••• author of Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice ••• defends ••• General Michael T. Flynn against a justice system become destructive of truth and liberty.

https://sidneypowell.com/media/michael-t-flynn-withdraws-his-plea - Jan 15, 2020”

… “Flynn is innocent of all charges, the government’s allegations are false, and evidence the government released only recently needs to be reviewed and addressed.  Mr. Flynn was always truthful, and future filings will make that clear.  Gen. Flynn has been targeted by vindictive and unprincipled prosecutors. … Gen. Flynn … has fulfilled his commitments to cooperate with the investigation in good faith.  The same cannot be said for the prosecution.  We will work now to reclaim his good name for his sake and that of his family, and to help restore trust in our justice system by standing up against the scandal and abuses of his unjust prosecution.” [this is glyph 620]

https://licensedtolie.com — “Licensed to Lie reveals the strong-arm, illegal, and unethical tactics used by headline-grabbing federal prosecutors in their narcissistic pursuit of power to the highest halls of our government.”

vGuardian - on defense of producers against predators, outside and within government

“The successful flight of former automobile executive Carlos Ghosn to his native Lebanon from the kangaroo court of Japan should be seen as a victory for individual liberties.” ••• by Conrad Black ••• author of A Matter of Principle ••• an account of prosecutorial abuse

The 1619 Project Debate: A Bibliography ••• Phillip W. Magness – January 3, 2020

Patents and Copyrights: Do we need them? Tom W. Bell has written on copyright and a lot of what he has written is useful in thinking about patents. ~thanks to Justin Longo and Josh Souter for raising good questions

Intellectual Privilege: Copyright, Common Law, and the Common Good ••• Tom W. Bell ••• published by Mercatus Center ••• at George Mason University.

“Two views dominate the debate over copyright policy. The view from the left tends to question all restraints on expression, whether they arise from censorship, copyright, or the common law, and regards property rights as far from sacrosanct. From the right, in contrast, copyright looks like any other sort of property, which as such demands the same respect afforded to tangible property like land, buildings, and tools. Each viewpoint reveals important truths: copyright impinges on freedoms of expression, even while its exclusive rights stimulate the creation of new works. Both viewpoints, however, fail to perceive copyright’s most distinguishing feature: its origin as a statutory privilege distinctly different from, and less justified than, the rights Americans enjoy thanks to the common law. These pages build on that insight to offer a third view of copyright, one that does not quite fit the traditional left-right divide. You might think of it as a (not the) libertarian view, given that reasonable libertarians will disagree with many of this book’s finer points and some of its major ones. Regardless of how you label this approach, though, it offers fresh answers to unresolved questions about the best way forward for copyright law and policy.” —Tom W. Bell

Things the book covers:

• A bird’s-eye view of the common law

• An economic model for maximizing copyright’s social benefits

• A history of the non-natural, statutory origins of copyright

• Reasons for respecting others’ copyrights

• An understanding of copyright as a type of statutory privilege, not property

• The indelicate imbalancing of copyright policy

• Fared use as a welcome relief from the misty boundaries of fair use

• Using copyright’s misuse defense to open an exit to the common law

• Why and how to deregulate access to original expressive works

• The benefits of uncopyright and an open copyright system

• An account of why we will outgrow the need for copyright.

“Remember the Common Law” ••• excellent, brief, by Jim Harper

Alma Deutscher, ~thanks to Marcy Ayanian

Piano Concerto ••• (YouTube); Violin Concerto ••• (YouTube)

Trio movement for violin, viola and piano ••• (YouTube)

Given four notes, at random (b, a, e-flat, g), Alma improvises •••

Frederick Douglass: A biography •••

Australian fires and temperature not worst ever: “It has been hotter, fires have burnt larger areas” ••• 4 Jan 2020 Jennifer Marohasy ••• offers information critical of most of what we are being told.

Which book to read next? JD Bertron explains how economics can help: “New Year, New Books” •••

Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography ••• Karl Popper

A good introduction is Philosophy and the Real World ••• (Amazon) by Bryan Magee, published by Open Court

Money that does not lose purchasing power every day? These articles by Keith Wiener explain how that might be made to happen: “The Unadulterated Gold Standard” ••• January 11, 2017 by Kieth Wiener ••• founder of The Gold Standard Institute ••• ~thanks to JD Bertron, Business Resilience Insights ••• vMulligan

“Some thoughts on education and political priorities — Summary: Although we understand some systems well enough to make precise or statistical predictions, most interesting systems - whether physical, mental, cultural, or virtual - are complex, nonlinear, and have properties that emerge from feedback between many interactions. Exhaustive searches of all possibilities are impossible. Unfathomable and unintended consequences dominate. Problems cascade. Complex systems are hard to understand, predict and control.” ••• by Dominic Cummings, aide and strategist for Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister. This is a 237 page pdf beginning with a three page summary. Interesting threads are woven together in this article.

“Can the New Silk Road Compete with the Maritime Silk Road?” ••• ~thanks to Valnora Leister, author of a book about the Lusosphere •••

The importance of Error Correction: Preserving institutions of error correction more important than policy

Note: The article referred to by Cummings (below) does not seem to be at the link given. The quotation from Deutsch about error correction can be found on Twitter. This link ••• possibly goes to the paper Cummings has mentioned.

“PPS. The foundation problem with the EU was best summarised by the brilliant physicist David Deutsch, the man who extended Alan Turing’s 1936 paper on computation into the realm of quantum mechanics. Deutsch said: ‘The EU is incompatible with Britain’s more advanced political culture. I’m voting Leave… [E]rror correction is the basic issue, and I can’t foresee the EU improving much in this respect… [P]reserving the institutions of error correction is more important than any policy… Whether errors can be corrected without violence is not a “concern” but a condition for successfully addressing concerns.’” —this is from Dominic Cummings blog •••

Cummings is an important strategist for Boris Johnson.

Error correction is one of the deepest requirements of freeorder - see the works of Karl Popper. A good introduction is Philosophy and the Real World ••• (Amazon) by Bryan Magee, published by Open Court

See also the website ••• of Rafe Champion for good articles about Popper.

New York, Conversations! •••

“Lively-minded New Yorkers like you are coming together in conversations that are exhilarating and empowering. Join us to make your life even more enjoyable, interesting, and meaningful.” ~thanks to Ron Gross x.com, a close friend of Socrates

An exchange of letters of mutual affection and criticism: EU and Britain

Frans Timmermans: “My love letter to Britain: family ties can never really be severed” •••

Daniel Hannan responds: “A letter to the Eurocrats: Britain’s quarrel is with you, not with Europe” •••

David French on growing division based on political tribalism •••

Irshad Manji: “Worry Less About Offending People And More About Being Able To Take Offense” ••• (YouTube, about 3 minutes, 6 March 2019) ~thanks to Marcy Ayanian

Explorers Foundation’s page on Irshad Manji ••• vIjtihad

“Bettina Brentano: A virtuoso muse” ••• by Jan Swafford, in The Guardian, August 2003: An introduction to a most extraordinary woman, whose inspiration enters into the story of freeorder. [this is glyph 554]

“… Bettina had a horror of the ordinary. To Clemens [her brother] she wrote, in terms she would echo for the rest of her life: ‘It is no use telling me to be calm; to me that conveys sitting with my hands in my lap, looking forward to the broth we are having for supper... My soul is a passionate dancer; she dances to hidden music which only I can hear... Whatever police the world may prescribe to rule the soul, I refuse to obey them.’” ~thanks to Jan Swafford for preserving the memory of this extraordinary woman

There is speculation that this magnificent declaration ••• of Beethoven's about music and his own place in the world may have been written by Bettina. If so, we owe her thanks: she captured an immortal truth.

“The New Civil Liberties Alliance ••• has filed a lawsuit ••• in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York challenging the funding mechanism for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as unconstitutional. Specifically, NCLA alleges that Congress unlawfully divested its legislative appropriations power when it gave CFPB the ability to draw funding directly from the Federal Reserve, without annual appropriations from Congress and without oversight from the appropriations committees of Congress.”

A moment out of Tolkien: ‘On Twitter, a Yorkshireman confirmed that locals were “coming down from the hills to see off the dark forces”.’ Sometimes I love the visionary atavism of the British people — an atavism that leaps chasms of darkness to light on the other side.

The quotation was found in an article ••• by Allison Pearson ••• published in The Telegraph ••• (most of the content is behind a paywall).

On the significance of cultural atavism see the recent book by Emmanuel Todd, Lineages of Modernity: A History of Humanity from the Stone Age to Homo Americanus

Initiative for Free Trade ••• “Makes the intellectual and moral case for free trade, and sees Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union as a unique opportunity to revitalise the world trading system.”

Janet Daley, in The Telegraph, London, 12 Dec 2019, 10:3pm GMT: “Well I have to admit it. I burst into tears. The people of Britain have spoken - the real people. Not the social media trolls or the Twitter addicts or that whole parallel universe of ghosts who seemed - to the credulous - to be what politics was about now, but the grown-up, decent, rational people of this country who have once again asserted their right to be heard.

"And because Boris Johnson insisted that this was a Brexit election - with that endlessly repeated mantra about ‘getting Brexit done’ - this was more than an election: it was a second referendum too. So that’s the end of that.”

The Anglosphere Challenge vAnglosphere by James C. Bennett

Sharyl Attkisson ••• is writing for The Epoch Times ••• vSheridan

Jim Bennett: “The Economics of Space: An Industry Ready to Launch: Here are cooperative ways for government agencies and the private sector to promote widespread commercialization of space transportation and accelerate the pace of exploration and economic development of space” ••• by Jeff Greason ••• and James C. Bennett •••, June 5, 2019

“The Economics of Space: An Industry Ready to Launch” - The full study ••• the basis for the above article. vWatt

Artisanal gold miners: “A group of international organizations, led by Switzerland’s Better Gold Initiative (BGI), has extended their responsible mining initiative to hundreds of artisanal gold miners from El Chocó, Colombia, which are now part of a fully traceable and accountable international supply chain.” ••• by Cecilia Jamasmie ••• of Mining.com

Britain: “I said earlier that no general election this century has been pivotal. That is true, but one popular vote has been – the Leave result in 2016. It was the most comprehensive democratic repudiation of our establishments that this country has known.” —Charles Moore, The Telegraph, Dec 6, 2019.”It may not feel like it, but this election could turn out to be as pivotal as 1945 or 1979” ••• ~subscription may be required

Joel Kotkin: Mayors Won’t Rule the World: ‘As big city politics shift ever further to the left, particularly on climate and “social justice” issues, not only are they becoming toxic to the middle class, they are becoming places many avoid rather than models that invite imitation.’ http://www.newgeography.com/content/006484-mayors-wont-rule-world

Discussions going on regarding water use and conservation, watersheds, wetlands, riparian zones, Colorado Headwaters, Colorado water law ~thanks to Jerry Mallett and Ed Warner

Colorado Headwaters •••

Peaks to People Water Fund •••

Sand County Foundation •••

Illustrated explanation of mountain meadow revival ••• from American Rivers •••

If a venture participating in freeorder network were to engage at top levels with one of Europe's largest financial institutions it could raise questions about culture to which this would be a valuable input, because to know a tree well it is good to know about its roots.

“Miracle Men: How Market Liberals Saved Germany from Economic Catastrophe:

A little implementation of free-market principles goes a long way” ••• by Samuel Gregg ••• research director at the Acton Institute •••

Stephen Ministry ••• is a lay care giving ministry that supplements Christ’s Episcopal Church pastoral care. ~thanks to Dennis Smith

Stephen Ministry is a one on one ministry that provides servants who listen, care, encourage and provide emotional and spiritual support to others who are facing crisis or are going through tough times. The care … is confidential. The confidential relationship, usually conducted by weekly visits, may continue for months or years.

On Individualism ••• Alan Macfarlane ••• (whose work is a principle resource for freeorder)

Civilization can revive “… when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among the crowd and in opposition to it. A new public opinion must be created privately and unobtrusively . The existing one is maintained by the press, by propaganda, by organization, and by financial and other influences which are at its disposal. The unnatural way of spreading ideas must be opposed y the natural one, which goes from man to man and relies solely on the truth of the thoughts and the hearer’s receptiveness for new truth.” —Albert Schweitzer ~widely quoted, source?

“Czechs in Chicago: A Home in the Heartland” ••• a feature-length documentary film has raised the funds (through Kickstarter •••) needed for final filming, editing, and release. ~thanks to Susan Marcinkus and Larry Jacobs Producers, Manifest Films, Inc.

We are fully on board with George Gilder, and his new venture, Gilder Press ••• a franchise within Laissez Faire Books, LLC ••• an independent publisher of technology and financial research. — participants in freeorder network may call me for details (see “contact”) -ls ~thanks to Jameson Campaigne

Thanksgiving and the Birth of American Free Enterprise ••• by Richard M. Ebeling

Holodomor Memorial Day in Ukraine and Around the Globe ••• by Marianna Davidovich Brashear •••

“Today [24Nov19] the world remembers the atrocities inflicted by the horrific communist and socialist policies of Stalin and the USSR. There is nothing more important than human rights and continuing the fight for freedom for every human being.” … “For over 50 years, Holodomor was erased from history through cover-ups and denials and was never memorialized.”

Nanodust ••• unclonable diamond identity layer on any object - registered on blockchain

“DUST Identity developed a solution that utilizes nanodiamonds to create an unclonable identity layer on any object. An optical scanner and cloud-based infrastructure provide an interface to the object identity and provenance. DUST ensures that trusted data and verifiable products are used and traced across their full lifecycle. This foundational technology can be utilized with blockchains to extend the trusted digital thread by securely anchoring it to products, parts, packaging and documents.” vWatt

To catch a thief - a short video ••• admirable, amusing, cheering. ~thanks to Tim Kern

Second Amendment Sanctuary: If you think it’s good for people to be able to defend themselves against physical attack then this might be of interest: “Second Amendment Sanctuary, Step by Step Guide to Make It Happen, Example Resolutions” ••• by Dave Workman, a senior editor at the GunMag, a publication of the Second Amendment Foundation •••

J’Accuse ••• A letter to the President of the French Republic by Émil Zola, published 13 Jan 1893, covered the entire front page of Georges Clemenceu’s newspaper, “L’Aurore”, exposing the corruption of the leadership of the French Army, whose lies led the false conviction for treason of Alfred Dreyfus, who was fully exonerated only in 1906. vSheridan

“The Texas Bullion Depository Bill was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 12, 2015, officially establishing the first ever state-administered precious metals bullion depository (HB 483; originally filed and submitted by Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R - Southlake)). The establishment of the Texas Bullion Depository creates an official depository operation, operated under contract with the State of Texas by Lone Star Tangible Assets of Austin, Texas.” —https://www.texasbulliondepository.gov/first-in-class

The American Idea: Core Documents ••• available without charge online, from the Ashbrook Center •••

“The Ashbrook Center seeks to restore and strengthen the capacities of the American people for constitutional self-government. Ashbrook teaches students and teachers across our country what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world. Ashbrook creates informed patriots.” —Mission of Ashland Center •••

Teaching American History ••• a program of Ashland Center

Interactive timeline of historical documents •••

PadSplit ••• a co-living startup formed in 2017 offers one solution for inexpensive housing.

A National Review article ••• about PadSplit

“The California Exodus Is Real” ••• by Ronald Stein, of Fox and Hounds ••• reposted by Joel Kotkin

“The Immigrant Worker Protection Act (GC, Section 7285.1) says an employer who follows federal immigration law is now violating California law, is committing a crime, and is subject to significant fines. At the same time, it is also a crime if an employer fails to follow federal immigration laws.” -from the above article

NewGeography.com is a joint venture of Joel Kotkin and Praxis Strategy Group

“NewGeography.com is a site devoted to analyzing and discussing the places where we live and work. We want to know not only what is happening, but also how you, your company and your community can best adapt to rapidly changing conditions.

The TANK Center for Sonic Arts ••• Rangely, Colorado

“The TANK Center for Sonic Arts is an unusual arts venue--a tank, literally, an empty seven-story water tank in Rangely, Colorado, discovered in the 70's to have extraordinary acoustic resonance, a reverberation longer and richer than the Taj Mahal’s. At this point, The Tank is a fully-equipped recording venue and concert site, as well as a 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization, founded in 2013. The place has become a haven for the local music community and a unique destination for artists, sonic explorers, and curious visitors to learn to listen in a whole new way.”

Three Days at the Tank ••• by guitarist Bill Frisell and filmmaker Bill Morrison